Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Clinton Inc. is what’s wrong with America

Collateral beneficiaries? Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin not only got a private clintonemail.com account, she got a waiver that allowed consulting payments to her and her hubby, former Rep. Anthony Weiner. (AP)

Here’s the bottom line of the latest HillaryWorld scandals: Clinton Inc. embodies what’s wrong with America.

It’s about getting stinking rich from the inside connections forged in a life of public service.

It’s about using your “charity” and your high government office as adjuncts of your political machine.

It’s about refusing to play by the rules even as you want to set the rules for everyone else.

Start with the latest shocker, the email lunacy. You don’t get to keep your government work a secret from the government.

Anyone with a regular job gets it: Your work product belongs to the folks who sign your paycheck. How can that not be even more obvious when the signature is Uncle Sam’s?

That the question never occurred to Hillary is just one more sign of her overinflated sense of entitlement — as is the fact that she set the whole thing up right when she was taking the job.

And that none of her staff at State ever raised a question tells you what a pack of flunkies she gathered ’round herself.

(I mean, she installed the private email server in her home. Who, other than exiled Nigerian princes looking for our help, does that?)

Nor was that the only rule-for-everyone-else that Hillary blew through at State.

The email revelation came atop the news that, despite previous denials, the Clinton Foundation took in countless millions from foreign sources while she ran the State Department.

No one’s even bothered to ask yet about the cash the foundation raised while she served in the Senate.

What, indeed, to make of the entire nonstop flow of corporate and foreign money over all the years since her better half left office, when she’s plainly been the single person in America most likely to someday become president?

The Clinton Foundation doubtless does much good work — but it also serves to shield from public view the transfer of endless cash from around the world to the Clintons’ control.

Fine, plenty of politicians, especially here in New York, use nonprofits to advance their careers. But “legal” nonprofit abuse remains one of the great ongoing scandals of New York government.

And the Clinton Foundation reeks of the same insider dealing — operating on a global scale.

The New York Times, to its credit, outlined more than a year ago how the Clintons have used the foundation to pay their operatives between campaigns — all without any need for those awkward Federal Election Commission filings.

The Times and others have also noted how the foundation blurs with Bill Clinton’s murky business work — the consulting jobs that have made Bill and Hillary rich despite leaving the White House “dead broke.”

Look, the Clintons were going to do fine no matter what after Bill left the White House: Book deals, speaking fees, a few beyond-reproach corporate-board memberships would be enough to cover their legal bills and leave them comfortably in the 1 percent.

They could’ve even set up a charity — Jimmy Carter did great work through Habitat for Humanity after his presidency.

Instead, they just had to set up something new and messy — something that would let them leverage their connections into a whole new machinery of power and influence.

And they couldn’t even be bothered to cut off some of the cash flow to avoid blatant conflicts of interest with her ongoing “public service.”

And we’re still not done with Hillary’s rule-shredding at State. She also selflessly ensured that her protégés didn’t leave their government service dead broke.

Secretary Hillary granted waivers so her top State councilors could work on the side as consultants.

Her closest aide, Huma Abedin, apparently pulled down $135,000 from Uncle Sam for her work at State while “earning” $355,000 as a consultant for outside interests.

Actually, half the 355 grand was paid to Mr. Abedin, a k a Anthony Wiener, a k a Carlos Danger, who was himself making big bucks as a consultant.

Now, maybe some of those payments were “investments” in case Tony recovered from his (first) pervert-Twitter scandal and became New York’s mayor. But “work” sent his way would also help out Huma, and so earn points with Hillary.

Huma, incidentally, was one of the select few also granted a clintonemail.com account. Which means the only official records of Hillary’s on-the-job correspondence with her closest aide are those emails that HillaryWorld now chooses to share.

It’s all just a big, stinking ball of taking care of yourselves while you do the people’s business.

The great irony here is last month’s news from the Washington Post: Hillary’s consultants are busy working out her themes for 2016. Apparently, a big one is going to be “pushing for economic fairness.”